This Priceless Dodo Skeleton Took 40 Years to Assemble

The dodo has been extinct for about 350 years, and it’s entirely our fault—so why not own a memento of man’s destructive tendencies in the form of a three-foot tall bird skeleton.

Dodo bones come up for auction from time to time, but this skeleton is the closest to a complete specimen that’s ever come up to market. Cobbled together by a private collector over the course of 40 years, it contains bones from numerous dodos, and is about 95 per cent complete. The missing pieces—a claw and a chunk of skull—have been cast in resin, according to the Daily Mail.

Mauritius—the small island that the flightless bird called home until we killed all of them—has since banned the sale of dodo remains, so it’s unlikely an a mostly-complete skeleton will appear for auction again. As such, it’s expected to sell for around £450,000. As the Independent notes, the last time a partial skeleton was sold was in 1914.

The auction will take place 22nd November at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex. Get ready to see the bids fly sky high. [Daily Mail, Independent via AP]